Before anyone goes off on an irrelevant tangent, remember that these recruits
are teenage men who have never played a down of college football in their lives.
Any attempts to judge their future collegiate ability through a 5 star rating
system is interesting at best and severly flawed at the least.

In
other words, everyone should settle down until the young men actually play in a
few collegiate games.

Looking forward to next season, hope its a great one. Personally, I get more
excited about "diamonds in the rough" than a four or five start recruit;
I've seen at least two examples of high profile recruits (*****) at BYU
amount to little. Ofa Moheatu/Jake Heaps. I'm sure they're many more
examples.

Independence is working out fine, BYU is still getting
fine recruits and I look forward to seeing many of them on the field in 3-4 more
years.

Mr. B, for kicks, why don't you give us the number of
5, 4 and 3-star recruits joing the utes next year, thay way we know where to set
expectations for their season.

Finally, why are you never the
"first poster" on ute articles? Surely, you're not that obssessed
with the Cougars!

Currently the Y's recruiting class is rated 55th. That is with their two
highest rated recruits included yet both appear questionable - at best. Even
with their inclusion there are 31 teams whose class is rated higher in star
rating but lowere because of the number of recruits. No telling how low the
current class with be evaluated.... but I know this means nothing to the coach
or fans(?)!

I wish the young men in the 2013 signing class well. But IMO there will be a lot
of wound-licking in Provo by the end of the 2013 football season. And it will be
surprising if BYU is not looking for a new head coach.

DonODraper, UTI wish the young men in the 2013 signing class well.
But IMO there will be a lot of wound-licking in Provo by the end of the 2013
football season.---------Perhaps the Utes could give them lessons.
They've had the entire bowl(less) season to practice...

I really understand Bronco's apathy toward the star system. Someone earlier
mentioned 5-stars that didn't pan out with Ofa Mohetau and Jake Heaps. Let
throw Ben Olson in as well. Then we have people with zero stars that walked on
like Dennis Pitta and Ziggy Ansah. Cody Hoffman was recruited but only by BYU
and Sacramento State.

I read an article last week (CBSSports.com,
maybe) that analyzed the 5-stars from 2008 as to how they panned out. A couple
have already made a mark in the NFL, some are expected to be major players this
year because they redshirted once, and about half of them got grades ranging
from C to F for their performance so far. Since success in football depends on a
good mixture of intelligence, heart, and physical skill or athleticism, it is
very difficult to predict how a recruit will do. Chad Lewis walked on at BYU,
went as an undrafted free agent to the NFL and became all-pro. Matt Leihnert won
the Heisman and barely stays in the league.

One of the things I like about this recruiting class are the WRs. They
aren't very ranked very high in terms of "star power" but they are
more athletic than many of the typical past BYU receivers. Talon Shumway, Tanner
Shipley, and Michael Davis all run 4.5s. I also like Inoke Lotulelei, a smaller
guy who could play slot receiver. Coach Cahoon has the chance to coach these
guys up into very productive targets.

The star ranking system is
really very interesting. We've seen examples of guys with lots of stars
(Jake Heaps) who don't pan out, but also guys with lots of stars (Kyle Van
Noy) who live up to the hype.

The biggest difference I see between
the scholarship/star players and walk-ons is:

Star players we've
heard of, and coaches of D-1 program saw their talents and saw fit to offer them
scholarships.

Walk-ons are hit or miss because we don't know
about them.

One walk-on I'm excited to see in the coming years
is Bryan Engstrom from Alta, a running back from Alta who alledgedly runs a 4.4
and looks good on film. We'll just see.

Just curious...are Van Noy, Hoffman, and Apo part Polynesians? Not that it
matters but I still would like to know. They are all great kids and love
watching them play.

@ Ernest T. Bass,I long for the day
you'll post a sincere comment about BYU. When will you realize you
ain't fooling no one? Pity!

It would be great if BYU can
attract the top athletes of the nation but as Chris B always says, it's
never going to happen and we know that. We'll just have to make do with
the talent we get and hope to continue to compete on a high level.

Overall, and generally speaking, the star system is a pretty good indicator of a
team's talent. There are plenty of individual exceptions. However, we all
know the coaching staff is a big indicator of team success also. But, generally
speaking, a team must improve its recruiting to compete, and when a team
improves its recruiting, the star ranking of its players improves.

Let's face it: BYU and Utah must improve their recruiting (which means
the star rankings of their recruits will rise) or there will be more seasons
ahead like 2012.

- it doesn't account
for players playing against different levels of competition in high school- it doesn't account for late bloomers or players that have already
peaked- it doesn't account for the symbiotic relationship of a team
that is greater than the sum of its parts- it doesn't account for
playing in different systems that may highlight a player's strengths, while
hiding a player's weaknesses- it doesn't account for better or
weaker coaching at the high school or college level

and most
importantly

- it doesn't account for an individual player's
drive to maximize his potential

In other words, there are so many
variables and intangibles to consider, that it's impossible to predict an
individual player's college football success based solely on the number of
stars placed next to his name by some recruiting service.

btw, USC,
in a down recruiting year, has FIFTEEN 4-star recruits; Utah and BYU have ONE
4-star recruit each.

Based on stars alone, Utah and BYU would NEVER
have a chance of beating a team like USC.